Read along

Baradwaj Rangan (BR) is one of the finest critics in India. He is academic, sincere, brilliant and not politically correct. He is one of the few critics in India who knows the syntax of how to review commercial films. I read and watch his reviews and interviews every week. When I came to know that, BR has written a book about Maniratnam and his movies, I couldn’t resist myself from reading it. "Conversations With Maniratnam"  is a book that tries to bring out the thought process and nuances behind various movies of Maniratnam. The book discusses all the movies of Mani in chronological order. It took quite a few chapters to get into the groove with this book due to various reasons. First, the book is completely written in a conversational format. It took some time for me to adjust to this as I am used to reading a book in a story format or from a first-person narrative. After seeing so many interviews of BR in Film Companion (Say, his deciphering of Ennai Arindhaal...

                                                             [Image courtesy: amazon.com] Bobby finds a dying man in his local golf court. The dying man utters his final words “Why didn’t they ask Evans” to Bobby before he dies. The court declares that the man is dead because an accidental fall after the inquest. After few days, Bobby is poisoned but survives miraculously. Is there any connection between the 2 deaths? Bobby and his friend Frankie tries to find the answers to the last words of the dead man  “Why didn't they ask Evans?” The book starts slow and there are too many characters introduced at the beginning of the book. Once the plot and the characters settle, the book moves in a terrific pace. Christie does not play fair with the readers and there are not much clues left for the readers to make an educated...